This evening walk explores some beautiful, noteworthy, examples of commercial architecture at the threshold of the 19th and 20th centuries. As the Georgian West End was comprehensively re-developed in the years around 1900, a group of talented and inventive architects became specialists in developing the narrow, long, sites of Georgian London. We will see the remarkable buildings of Beresford Pite, Treadwell & Martin, and H Fuller Clarke. Alongside these distinctly modern buildings we will celebrate some of the Fin de siècle, commercial, ‘bangers’ of Oxford Street including Mappin & Webb, Wearing & Gillow and Tanner’s Oxford Circus. If time permits, we will end the tour looking at the rebuilding of Piccadilly Circus in the early 20th century, with the Shaftesbury Fountain, a highlight of Art Nouveau in the capital.
The walk is led by the award winning architect and sketching teacher Benedict O’Looney. He is an architect, member of the Victorian Society Southern Building Committee, and a keen architectural draftsman. Benedict has taught architecture history and townscape sketching at the Architectural Association, The University of Kent, New York University’s London programme and Sir John Soane’s Museum.
Meeting Place: Outside the Rising Sun Pub, Tottenham Court Road, W1T 2EE
Cancellations
Cancellations will be accepted up to a week before the event. A refund will be issued but will be subject to a £10 deduction per ticket for administrative costs.
Disclaimer
You participate in events at your own risk, and neither the Society nor its officers or servants accept any liability of any kind whatsoever, howsoever arising. The Victorian Society reserves the right to cancel, alter or postpone events if necessary.
Image: Waring & Gillow’s Oxford Street store, which it occupied until 1973. By Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK – 164-182 Oxford Street, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27909206